]]>Fourteen years ago, Edilia Natera learned she was HIV-positive when her doctor ran blood tests during her pregnancy. What would be devastating news to any expecting mother was tantamount to a death sentence for Edilia.

“There wasn’t the same knowledge [in the Dominican Republic] in those days as there is now,” Natera remembers. “I didn’t have help.”

During childbirth, Natera’s baby came in contact with her blood and was born HIV-positive. “Now, if you’re pregnant, treatment starts right away. Doctors perform a Cesarean and you don’t breastfeed. If you follow all the instructions the doctor gives you, your baby may be born healthy. Mine wasn’t so lucky.” Natera’s baby died when she was just five years old.

While awareness of HIV/AIDS has increased in the Dominican Republic in recent years, tackling the disease remains a daunting challenge. A UN-funded report released this week, “Gender Equality and HIV in the Dominican Republic,” reveals that sixty percent of the people living with HIV in the Dominican Republic are women. It is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV in the Caribbean, and HIV is now the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age.

In 2004, PROFAMILIA became IPPF/WHR’s first Member Association in Latin America and the Caribbean to offer treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS. Through a partnership with CORPRESIDA, the national body for HIV/AIDS, anti- retroviral medication is available free- of-charge to all HIV-positive patients in three PROFAMILIA clinics.

There are two key elements to PROFAMILIA’s integrated approach: a focus on a broad range of vulnerable groups—from youth to women and immigrant populations—and a staunch commitment to fighting the stigma, discrimination and gender- based violence often associated with an HIV-positive status.

Leona Adolfo has worked for three years as a nurse for PROFAMILIA’s mobile unit serving the Abacao Batey, an impoverished, mostly Haitian-descendant community that worked for the sugar refineries. More than 400 people live in Abacao, mostly in wooden shacks without latrines. “Many people who live in the bateyes don’t have papers to visit the hospitals,” explains Adolfo, whose father was a Haitian contractor. “There are women who are 18 years old and they have three kids. They don’t go to school; they don’t have a job. There are many cases of teenage pregnancy and violence.”

Through the health services and education Adolfo provides, she has noticed real change in Abacao. “If this project did not exist, there would be more women with cancer, more pregnant teenagers, more people with HIV.” Most personally gratifying for Adolfo is giving people with so little, a chance to receive SRH services for free in one of PROFAMILIA’s clinics, where there’s no discrimination. “White, poor, rich, Dominican, Haitian, Haitian- Dominican, we are all human beings. [At PROFAMILIA,] everyone is treated in the same way.”

Despite this progress, more effort is needed to end discrimination and stigma within the wider Dominican society. According to a 2009 study by PROFAMILIA on HIV stigma and discrimination, HIV-positive men, and even more so, women have a lower level of education, significantly higher levels of unemployment and a greater degree of poverty—the annual income for some 71 percent of study participants was $3,000 US dollars or less.

In addition, HIV-positive people are disproportionally subject to discrimination, including verbal assault and physical abuse. HIV-positive women fare even worse: 53 percent of HIV- positive women, or twice the national average, had endured violence, ranging from physical abuse to being forced to have sex.

Natera, who now works as an HIV counselor at PROFAMILIA’s Santo Domingo clinic, draws on her own experiences with discrimination when educating her clients about gender- based violence and living with HIV. “I help the person see that, even if they have been diagnosed with HIV, it’s not the end of the world. They can continue living.” She has been repaid continually with stories from her community that reflect great strength and renewal. “People have come here so debilitated and they have found strength. That’s powerful.”

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/13/what-innovations-are-helping-hiv-women-in-dominican-republic/feed/0On International Women’s Day, Let’s Celebrate Our Success – Not Dismantle Ithttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/08/on-international-womens-day-lets-celebrate-our-success-%E2%80%93-not-dismantle-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=on-international-womens-day-lets-celebrate-our-success-%25E2%2580%2593-not-dismantle-it
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/08/on-international-womens-day-lets-celebrate-our-success-%E2%80%93-not-dismantle-it/#commentsThu, 08 Mar 2012 08:47:05 +0000Politics should not stand in the way of women’s access to family planning. Investing in women’s health leads to a healthier, more prosperous society — this is the legacy we should be exporting. On International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate our success, not try to dismantle it.

]]>Today is International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements and acknowledging their contributions to society. In 2012, we have much to celebrate. Women’s health and rights have made great strides in the past century. Yet there are some in positions of power who would like to take us back in time.

The Obama administration’s decision to cover birth control without co-pays under the Affordable Care Act has revealed the extreme positions held by some members of Congress. The same people who oppose legal abortion would like to bar women’s access to the most effective means of preventing unintended pregnancy and abortion. And these same opponents of birth control coverage for American women want to slash U.S. foreign aid for international family planning programs.

To lay out in the simplest terms why support for birth control for all women is so important, Planned Parenthood Global created this animated video (above). We’re calling it Health Has No Borders and it links to a petition by the same name urging Congress to support strong investments in international family planning programs. Actress Connie Britton of TV’s Friday Night Lights narrates.

Those of us who work in public health know firsthand the consequences of denying women access to birth control. The picture is grim.

There are 215 million women worldwide who want to plan or space their births but lack access to modern contraception. Virtually all of these women live in developing countries, where pregnancy poses potential health hazards. When women can’t access birth control, they experience high rates of unintended pregnancy, which leads to high rates of unsafe abortion, pregnancy complications, and maternal and infant deaths.

The benefits of investing in the health of women and their newborns lead to substantially fewer unintended pregnancies and dramatic reductions in maternal and infant deaths. Evidence shows that fewer women die from pregnancy-related causes in countries with strong, publicly funded family planning programs.

Here in the U.S., we are lucky to live in a country with some public support for family planning. The vast majority of women who need it have access to modern contraception. But half of all pregnancies in this country are unintended, and the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world.

The president’s recent budget request to Congress protects funding for family planning programs at home and abroad. But it’s up to Congress to approve these requests in the final budget. They should not balance the budget on women’s backs. Women deserve access to contraceptives and quality health care no matter where they live.

Let’s urge lawmakers to protect access and funding for family planning services for all women. Politics should not stand in the way of women’s access to family planning. Investing in women’s health leads to a healthier, more prosperous society — this is the legacy we should be exporting. On International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate our success, not try to dismantle it.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/08/on-international-womens-day-lets-celebrate-our-success-%E2%80%93-not-dismantle-it/feed/0Many International Agreements Later, Girls and Young Women Worldwide Still Lack Basic Rightshttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/international-womens-day-looking-towards-full-range-reproductive-rights-worldwide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=international-womens-day-looking-towards-full-range-reproductive-rights-worldwide
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/international-womens-day-looking-towards-full-range-reproductive-rights-worldwide/#commentsWed, 07 Mar 2012 21:04:28 +0000Adolescents worldwide lack access to the sexuality education and the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services that play a critical role in their well-being and empowerment. The implementation of the full range of reproductive rights — as fundamental human rights — must be a priority for all countries.

]]>Moldova is one of more than two dozen countries that celebrate International Women’s Day — March 8 — as a holiday, with an official day off and a long-held tradition of showering women with gifts. But Moldova is also a country that continues to deprive women and girls of their full reproductive rights, evidenced in part by its refusal to make sexuality education in public schools mandatory and its failure to provide Moldovan women and girls with affordable and safe contraceptives.

This year, for International Women’s Day, the Center for Reproductive Rights is focusing its attention on girls and young women. Adolescents worldwide lack access to the sexuality education and the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services that play a critical role in their well-being and empowerment. The implementation of the full range of reproductive rights — as fundamental human rights — must be a priority for all countries.

This reality is particularly disappointing given that the international Cairo Conference in 1994 that brought together 179 countries yielded the recognition that the reproductive health needs of adolescents up to that point had been largely ignored.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has long been at the forefront of advocating for access to reproductive health services for young women and girls. We brought two landmark cases on behalf of young women in Peru together with our local partners. In each, a United Nations committee of experts condemned the government for denying legal abortion services to these young women, who suffered tragic consequences as a result. (Read about K.L., a young woman forced to carry a pregnancy to term even though doctors had determined that continuing the pregnancy compromised her physical and mental health, and L.C., a 13-year-old rape victim who suffered irrevocable harm after doctors refused to terminate her pregnancy to enable her to immediately undergo a critical spinal surgery).

In the U.S., we stopped a state policy that would have legalized an unheard of level of intrusion into the medical privacy of teenagers under the pretext of protecting them from child abuse. Kansas would have forced a host of health providers including doctors, school counselors and therapists to report the most innocuous of activities — like French-kissing between teens younger than 16 — to state agencies as possible child abuse. The policy would have made it impossible for teenagers to trust their health care providers.

We took these actions long after the 1994 Cairo conference called for governments to take action, during a period that has seen youth population figures soar. Today, nearly half the world is 24 years of age or younger — but the ability of young adults and adolescents to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights has not kept pace.

Every year, people aged 10 to 24 experience 111 million cases of sexually transmitted infections.

Sixty percent of people between the ages of 15 and 24 don’t know how to prevent the transmission of HIV.

Numerous countries, including India and Norway, violate adolescents’ rights to confidentiality and deter them from obtaining legal abortion services through parental consent or notification requirements.

In other countries, including Poland and parts of the U.S., sexuality education courses include content that is inappropriate and ideologically driven.

It’s time to revisit the promises made at the 1994 conference and recommit to making reproductive health and rights for young people a priority. The 45th session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development presents the ideal opportunity to do so, when states gather in New York to discuss issues affecting adolescents and youth. The Center will be co-hosting a side event with International Planned Parenthood Federation to talk about autonomy, decision-making, confidentiality, and consent, which are crucial issues to adolescents’ ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.

We certainly applaud any country that sees fit to pay tribute to girls and women with this special day. But we call on every country to truly honor them by respecting their human rights to reproductive health information and services, including comprehensive sexuality education. Only in this way can their dignity and welfare be safeguarded.

In 2012, three years before the 2015 deadline the world set for itself to reduce preventable maternal deaths and new HIV infections, we must act more boldly than we have up until now. The global health community must work to bring family planning and HIV services together – and quickly – to save women’s lives.

Every year, over 350,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications. If every woman on the planet had equal access to family planning and safe motherhood services, one in four of these women’s lives could be saved. Equally important is the toll HIV takes on women and girls globally. Seventeen million women of reproductive age are living with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, HIV is responsible for 46 percent of all deaths among women of child-bearing age, many of which could be prevented with simple effective contraception and condoms to prevent both unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV – a practice technically known as ‘dual protection.’

It is 2012, three years before the 2015 deadline the world set for itself to reduce preventable maternal deaths and new HIV infections. If we are to reach this goal, we must act more boldly than we have up until now. Women who are at risk of unplanned pregnancy are also at risk of HIV, and vice-versa so separation of these services no longer makes sense. The global health community must work to bring family planning and HIV services together – and quickly – to save women’s lives.

The challenge to achieving this exists at the very highest levels. So the question is how do we ensure women receive the support they need to protect themselves against unplanned pregnancy and HIV infection?

In the past many HIV and family planning services have operated in complete isolation of one another. It is only through integration of sexual and reproductive health and HIV that we can hope to address this challenge.

Here in the West, where women have access to quality health care, free contraception, advice and condoms often in one place, it can be an issue to which we don’t give much thought. But today, on International Women’s Day, we should remember the 215 million women around the world, most at risk of both unplanned pregnancy and HIV, who want contraception and HIV prevention services, but have no access to integrated services.

Marie Stopes International and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance are working together to make it possible for women to access HIV prevention, care and treatment services during any visit to their family planning provider – and for those accessing HIV services to access family planning. We know that this increases effectiveness, efficiency of health service delivery, and provides value for money through less duplication of effort. We believe our approach will save women’s lives.

We call on the public to urge leaders to support integration of services in the developing world. We encourage organisations working with us to support the integration of family planning and HIV services.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/international-women%E2%80%99s-day-call-to-action-integrate-family-planning-and-hiv-servic/feed/1Sex, Reproduction, and the MDGs: Why Funding for Reproductive Health Care is Critical to Combatting Global Povertyhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/support-reproductive-health-can-reduce-global-poverty/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=support-reproductive-health-can-reduce-global-poverty
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/support-reproductive-health-can-reduce-global-poverty/#commentsWed, 07 Mar 2012 08:35:25 +0000Improving access to sexual and reproductive health services is necessary to advance the Millennium Development Goals. At this critical moment, however, funding priorities for family planning are being shifted away from Latin America and the Caribbean, which may undermine the substantial gains that have been made in the region and overlook the tremendous need that still remains.

]]>This week, the World Bank reported that Latin America and Africa are the only two regions that have not met the Millennium Development Goal to reduce extreme poverty. Latin America may be the wealthiest region in the developing world on a per capita basis, but it also has one of the most unequal income distributions in the world. Statistical averages across the region mask the existence of the significant inequality within it that hinders access to sexual and reproductive health services for the region’s most vulnerable — in particular, rural, poor, indigenous, and youth populations.

Sexual and reproductive health is fundamental to our overall well-being, and investment in sexual and reproductive health care holds enormous benefits for individuals and societies. The right of women and men to control their fertility and have reliable access to quality health services is at the center of contemporary reproductive health and sustainable development policies. Still, nearly half of sexually active young women in Latin America and the Caribbean have an unmet need for contraception.

Improving access to sexual and reproductive health services is necessary to advance the Millennium Development Goals. At this critical moment, funding priorities for family planning are being shifted away from Latin America and the Caribbean. This move may undermine the substantial gains that have been made in the region and overlook the tremendous need that still remains.

Withdrawing funding by “graduating” countries before they are capable of independently maintaining and improving access to reproductive health care will have a negative impact that could reverse the progress that has already been made through decades of sustained investment. The costs of failing to do so will be turning back substantial advances in health, economic development, and women’s equality.

The need for expanded sexual and reproductive health services and commodities is often linked to poverty reduction. Indeed, common sense supports the notion that poor reproductive health outcomes, such as unintended pregnancy, excess fertility, or complications associated with pregnancy or unsafe abortion, undermine the ability of the poor to escape poverty. Economically vulnerable communities in rural areas often do not have access to sexual and reproductive health education and services. As a result, fertility rates are considerably higher in rural areas.

Investing in sexual and reproductive health can have a considerable impact on achieving wider health-related, social, and economic development goals. For example, a study in Mexico showed that for every peso spent on family planning services between 1972 and 1984, nine pesos were saved on unrealized expenses of treating complications of unsafe abortions and in providing maternal and post-natal care. Broader gains for development can be achieved through better sexual and reproductive health for men and women across the region.

Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest contraceptive prevalence rate in the developing world, and fertility rates have declined substantially over the last four decades. In spite of this, over half of all pregnancies of women between 15 and 44 are unintended, maternal mortality rates are stagnating, and adolescent pregnancies are on the rise. In 2008, approximately 1 in 4 women in Latin American and the Caribbean who wanted to avoid getting pregnant were not using contraceptives or family planning services. These same women accounted for three-quarters of all unintended pregnancies across the region. The unsatisfied demand for contraceptives is not only the second highest in the world (after Sub-Saharan Africa), but unequal access to sexual and reproductive health services reflects the prevalence of social inequalities in the region.

The cost of providing adequate sexual and reproductive health services to women in Latin America and the Caribbean is relatively small ($880 million). Fulfilling this unmet need would reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by 67%, substantially decrease the number of unsafe abortions, and make maternal and newborn care more affordable. In addition, an estimated 70,000 lives — 10,000 mothers and 60,000 infants — would be saved each year as maternal and infant mortality rates would be cut in half, making the benefits of continued investment in the region clear.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/support-reproductive-health-can-reduce-global-poverty/feed/0Discredited Sting Operations and Sex-Selection Abortion in the United Kingdom: An Open Letter in Support of Providershttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/open-letter-support-doctors-who-provide-abortion-services/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=open-letter-support-doctors-who-provide-abortion-services
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/open-letter-support-doctors-who-provide-abortion-services/#commentsWed, 07 Mar 2012 07:29:39 +0000"Sting" operations carried out by anti-choice groups who want to eliminate women's access to abortion and birth control have become an issue in the United Kingdom where misrepresentation of the issue of sex selection is being used in a new series of attacks on providers.

On 22nd February the Daily Telegraph published an ‘investigation’ into abortion providers in the UK, to support the claim that the practice of providing abortion for women on the basis of the sex of the fetus is widespread in this country. Pregnant women, accompanied by undercover journalists with hidden cameras, visited abortion clinics and pretended to want terminations on the basis of fetal sex.

Following publication there are those who have called for the prosecution of doctors and changes to UK abortion law, expressing horror at the sex discrimination that sex selective abortion implies. However, it is clear that the intention of those behind this newspaper investigation is not to improve the lives of women or eradicate the discrimination that so often provides the context for sex selection, but solely to make access to safe, legal abortion harder. Far from tackling discrimination, creating a culture of fear in regard to abortion referral will disadvantage all women. The intention of those behind this project was to create a chilling effect amongst doctors, making them less likely to refer for or provide abortions; to divide the majority of public opinion which supports the provision of abortion; and to stimulate a wholesale critique of current legal grounds for abortion.

The following open letter of support for the doctors involved must be just the beginning of a campaign to ensure that doctors are protected and that the current law, which serves women pretty well, is preserved.

In the face of the Daily Telegraph’s attempt to entrap and discredit a number of doctors who provide abortions, we would like to express our support for all those doctors who are willing to provide abortion referrals in the United Kingdom and all health professionals who provide safe abortion services.

We represent pro-choice organisations that have been working for women’s right to safe abortion for many years. We believe that abortion should be available to every woman who requests it, and that the provision of safe, accessible abortion care is a vital element of health care provision.

The Daily Telegraph‘s interpretation of the 1967 Abortion Act is mistaken. The law does not specify that rape is one of the legal grounds for abortion, but a doctor can provide a referral for abortion if a pregnancy results from rape. Similarly, abortion on grounds of sex selection is neither legal nor illegal in itself.* Under the 1967 Abortion Act, it is the effect of the pregnancy on a woman’s health, mental health and life that must be taken into account to determine whether or not she has grounds for abortion. Doctors are not given a shopping list of specific grounds for which abortion is allowed or not allowed. Rather, the law gives doctors the responsibility to decide whether the risk of continuing the pregnancy to the woman’s health and mental health is greater than if the pregnancy were terminated. In making this judgement, doctors are directed by the law to take into account the woman’s personal circumstances. These include, for example, her age, her being unemployed or on low pay, or trying to complete her education, or being single, or having other small children to care for, or feeling strongly that she simply cannot cope with a baby (or another baby) at this particular time because of the negative impact it would have on her life, or because she has fears about the outcome and/or life chances of the child if it were born. The law further allows doctors to authorise an abortion if there is a risk to the woman’s existing children of continuing the pregnancy, or if there is a risk of serious abnormality in the fetus if the pregnancy were to go to term.

The 1967 Abortion Act gave doctors the responsibility for authorising abortions in the belief that women could not be trusted to take this decision for themselves. Yet today, it is clear that women who have babies and women who have abortions are the same women. Today, most doctors and most people recognise that women themselves do know what is best for their own lives and do take responsible decisions. Hence, most doctors are willing to provide an abortion referral for a woman if she requests it because they understand that continuing an unwanted pregnancy is not good for women or their children, and will almost always cause a woman greater distress than having an abortion.

We believe the 1967 Act is outdated because it puts the onus on doctors to be gatekeepers, rather than providing women with the right to decide what is best for their own lives. We think that abortion should be available on a woman’s request, and not be governed by criminal statute at all.

We are also opposed to gender discrimination, but sex selective abortion is not gender discrimination. Gender discrimination applies only to living people. A fetus does not have rights in the same way as a living person does, and therefore cannot be said to suffer from discrimination. Gender discrimination has its roots in economic, political, social and religious life; sex selective abortion may be one of the consequences of gender discrimination, but it is not a cause of gender discrimination.

The ‘investigation’ reported by the Daily Telegraph was carried out by unidentified persons in the context of concerted attempts by anti-abortion politicians and anti-abortion activists to discredit and frighten abortion providers by characterising them as unprofessional, greedy and wicked. Yet no evidence exists to support this proposition. Hence, they have stooped to using methods that are closer to entrapment than to any semblance of legitimate investigative journalism.

These methods are highly questionable if not downright unethical. In a video taken without the doctor’s knowledge or consent, a short segment of which was screened on ITV’s Granada Regional News on 23 February, a young doctor says to the bogus patient in front of her: “If you want a termination, you want a termination. That’s my job. That’s all. I don’t ask questions,” while the patient tries to insist on divulging her bogus reasons. This is not evidence of illegal behaviour on the doctor’s part. That this doctor has since been suspended and the police asked to investigate her and others is a travesty of justice.

We would have hoped that pro-choice politicians would stand up for abortion providers, and maybe some still will. However, initial reactions have been hasty and heavy-handed, betraying underlying anti-abortion sentiments. Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, who otherwise claims he wants doctors to be in charge of all our health care services, said that doctors would face the “full force” of the law if they break the 1967 Abortion Act. This is hard to swallow, especially considering that many of us hadn’t even been born the last time a doctor had to face the full force of the law in relation to illegal abortion. The Health Secretary should know better than most that the 1967 Abortion Act was formulated precisely to allow doctors to exercise their professional judgement. It is shocking that he would threaten them with prosecution for doing so on such flimsy evidence.

Some politicians, Nadine Dorries, for example, would dearly love to turn the clock back. She must be delighted that the Daily Telegraph has boosted her attempts as a woman to curtail other women’s rights. In her blog on Conservative Home, she went one better than Andrew Lansley and threatened doctors not only with prosecution but with being struck off the medical register. She even mentioned life imprisonment, which is ludicrous, but intimidating nonetheless.

The vast majority of heterosexually-active people of reproductive age are currently using a method of contraception to the best of their ability, but one in three women in Britain will have an abortion in her lifetime. We will stand up for doctors and other health professionals who support and are willing to provide safe abortion services. We applaud their commitment in the face of unwarranted harassment and condemnation. Even though the public are periodically showered with disinformation on abortion, every poll and every public debate show that most people in Britain are aware of and support the right to use contraception and the right of women to seek abortion when pregnancy is unwanted. We call on everyone who supports family planning, including safe abortion, to express their appreciation for the health professionals who provide them.

*As the Chief Medical Officer explained: ‘Sex selection is not one of the lawful grounds for termination. It is illegal for a practitioner to carry out an abortion for that reason alone, unless the certifying practitioners consider that an abortion was justified in relation to at least one of the section 1(1) grounds’. (CMO/CSA letter gateway ref 17305, 23 February 2012, Abortion Act 1967 (as amended): Termination of Pregnancy)

Women Deliver, the maternal health advocacy group, today named its “Women Deliver 50,” a list not of individuals, but of solutions, focusing not on the "who" but the "how of change, and hopefully inspriing people to think bigger and crazier, and do better work.

International Women’s Day, March 8, is a harbinger of lists. Those lists are usually awesome and inspiring – hundreds of women who shake the world, deliver for girls and women, or are simply deemed “top in the world.” (Why these lists don’t come out more than once or twice a year is beyond me). But this year, sifting through International Women’s Day emails, events, and announcements, I was pleasantly surprised to see a different kind of list.

Women Deliver, the maternal health advocacy group, today named its “Women Deliver 50,” a list not of individuals, but of solutions. It’s not quite as sexy, true, but it’s refreshingly pragmatic. Recognizing individual change makers is important, but it is almost always the case that change happens thanks to many, many people. Why not focus on how that change happened (or is happening), so others can be inspired to think bigger and crazier, and do better work?

The list spans the globe, including ideas and programs from every sector and almost every continent, submitted by individuals in more than 100 countries. There are successes on queer rights, menstruation, sex trafficking, safe abortion, birth control, and business development. The Women Deliver 50 depicts a fascinating cross -section of success, from nascent bright ideas to well-worn programs, proving that the girl effect is alive and well, but it comes in many shapes and forms, while women’s empowerment may be found in unlikely corners.

Half of this year’s award-winning ideas hail from Sub-Sahara Africa, a continent that might at times be short on resources like clean water, but never ingenuity. One solution which caught my eye, in the “Leadership and Empowerment” category, is Backpack Farm. It’s a sustainable farming organization that works in Kenya and South Sudan with smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women. “Africans Feeding Africa,” is their tagline and they literally give farmers backpacks filled with a bevy of supplies (from seeds to safety equipment, and still portable) designed to improve the quality and quantity of crops according to semi-commercial rates of production. A five-phase training program also helps farmers master the ins and outs of production and marketing, and begin work with other small farmers.The group’s vision is that training, equipping, and organizing small-share farmers into cooperatives offers a workable solution to food insecurity continent-wide.

The potential for scale is huge: 75 percent of the 250 million tons of crops grown in Sub-Saharan Africa are grown by smallholder farmers and there are more than 100 million small farmers in East Africa alone. This is helping women and other small farmers to do what they already do, but more productively and collaboratively. Food security – and land rights issues – remain major stumbling blocks to reducing poverty in Africa broadly and to improving the lives of girls and women. Women grow 80-90% of the food on the continent, but have little security for the land on which they grow. There has been an upswell of recent attention to the issue of women and agriculture and land. This year’s Commission on the Status Women, which concludes today, focused on rural women and empowerment, while the upcoming the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, “Rio+20,” will draw development experts from around the world to Brazil in June. Helen Clark, head of UNDP, recently wrote:

“the entrepreneurial spirit of rural women will help overcome global food security challenges and end the vicious cycles of poverty which hurt so many of the world’s people.” It’s a lofty vision, but could very well be true – if women have access to the right solutions.

“We have made great strides toward substantially bettering the lives of girls and women through the types of innovative programming and advocacy we find among these winners. But we can – and we must – do more,” said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and member of The Elders, a group of global leaders whose initiative “Girls Not Brides” was honored for its efforts to eradicate child marriage. She’s right: we can – and must – do more. It doesn’t take a shrewd development economist to know that there are a lot of ineffective programs and wasteful or misguided charity efforts out there. More importantly, there are too many efforts to “save” girls and women that don’t take stock of personal dignity, agency, and rights of individuals.

These are anti-solutions, which miss the mark entirely, and should be rooted out. This list, which was elected from among 125 finalists by 6,000 voters, is a panoply of solutions done right – or at least getting there. Whether the girls and women who benefit from these solutions were, themselves, able to vote is unclear…but likely not. Access to the internet, time, interest, and resources to create such lofty lists is a privilege in itself. So let’s own and enjoy it while we have it, and use it to make ourselves work a hell of a lot harder for girls and women (ourselves and each other) moving forward.

Welcome to our new Weekly Global Reproductive Justice Roundup! Each week, reporter Jessica Mack will summarize reproductive and sexual health and justice news from around the world. We will still report in depth on some of these stories, but we want to make sure you get a sense of the rest and the best.

USAID Launches New Gender Policy: Yes, And?

USAID has announced the launch of its new Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment. The policy is driven in part by half-baked success to improve the lives of girls and women worldwide through international aid programs in recent years. The policy will direct foreign aid toward three goals: 1) empowering girls and women to realize their rights 2) reducing gender disparities in access to resources and 3) addressing gender-based violence. Secretary Clinton has been saying for years that women and girls are at the heart of US foreign policy, so either USAID is just not catching on, or wishful thinking is just now being turned into reality. About time: a recent report from the World Bank confirmed that women shoulder 66 percent of the world’s work, produce 50 percent of the food, earn 10 percent of the income, and own just one percent of land. Meanwhile, a report published by Pathways of Empowerment found that, in general, international donor policies have failed to effect any real change for women and girls worldwide. Approaching “women’s empowerment” as a monolithic goal, efforts have fallen short and given way to ‘empowerment light.’ Findings suggest that, instead, empowerment transpires in range of unexpected settings and activities, like watching TV and focusing on women’s sexual pleasure. Via DAWNS Digest.

Women Survive in a Fledgling South SudanSouth Sudan is the world’s youngest country. It seemed to have an OK go of it after gaining independence last July, but has become almost completely embroiled in conflict since then. Women face dire health circumstances and escalated risks of sexualized violence. At the country’s inception, women had a unique window to assert their equal rights and influence over the nation’s future, but it’s soon closing. Women’s groups continue to organize for their inclusion, voice, and empowerment, but the broader country-wide conflict may consume their good intentions. This is a critical junction for women in South Sudan, and they need all the support and awareness they can get – some think they could hold the nation’s promise of peace. Via Channel 16.

FIFA Tests ‘Sport Hijab’ for Muslim Female Football PlayersIn response to pressure from the United Nations and the Prince of Jordan, among others, FIFA, the international football federation, has agreed to consider overturning its hijab ban for female players. Long sleeves and leggings are allowed for modesty reasons, but FIFA has claimed that the wearing of a head scarf is a safety issue on the field, since it is normally held in place with pins. Last year, the Iranian women’s football team was disqualified from an Olympics qualifying match because of their dress. Now, a scarf held with Velcro will be tested as an alternative. The Prince of Jordan, who is also a FIFA VP, has called it a matter of culture, not religion, that women should be allowed to wear the garment. Perhaps lifting the ban would help persuade Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei to field women’s teams for the upcoming Olympics? Via Religious News Service.

Unsafe Abortion Persists in Nepal, Despite Liberal LawAn in-depth report says unsafe abortion is still rampant in Nepal, ten years after the abortion law was amended to be one of the more progressive in the world, available to women under nearly any circumstance through the first and sometimes second trimesters. A 2009 Supreme Court decision affirmed that legal abortion in Nepal must be accessible and affordable to all women. Knowledge that abortion can be procured safely, legally, and cheaply – in government hospitals, no less – is unfortunately scant countrywide, owing in part to large remote swaths and difficult terrain. Also serving as a stumbling block to safe and legal abortion is USAID policies and officials. A 2009 report from the rights group Ipas found that The Helms Amendment, which prevents funding of abortion, was being applied as an all-out abortion ban and generated misconceptions among providers and women.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/07/global-roundup-can-us-fix-gender-inequality-worldwide/feed/0‘Dawn of a New Hope’ For Whom? Violence and Impunity Still Plague Women in Ivory Coasthttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/05/dawn-new-hope-whom-violence-and-impunity-still-plague-women-in-ivory-coast/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dawn-new-hope-whom-violence-and-impunity-still-plague-women-in-ivory-coast
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/03/05/dawn-new-hope-whom-violence-and-impunity-still-plague-women-in-ivory-coast/#commentsMon, 05 Mar 2012 22:03:18 +0000

Nearly one year after post-election violence in Ivory Coast displaced one million and fostered brutal sexual violence, the country seems to be getting back on track and a new campaign seeks to end the acceptance of violence as "normal."

Laurent Gbagbo should have gone quietly. After a decade as President of Ivory Coast, mostly everyone – Ivorians and outsiders – agreed that he had lost the November 2010 election to Alasanne Outtarra. But he didn’t go, and certainly not quietly, instead plunging the country into chaos until his arrest in April. By UN estimates, citizen militias backed by both men resulted in 3,000 killed and approximately one million displaced, with 70,000 still residing across the border of neighboring Liberia.

Last April, I spoke with Liz Pender, a gender-based violence technical advisor for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian group. Pender, speaking from refugee camp on the Liberia border, relayed reports of gang rapes, rapes of entire families, and sexual slavery as women and girls were “taken as wives” for weeks on end.

“These women have experienced things that we cannot even imagine – and many for the second time,” she said, referring to the violence endured during the last major Ivorian conflict, 2004’s civil war.

It’s been about one year since the chaos died down, at least politically. Laurent Gbagbo has been charged with crimes against humanity and awaits his fate in the Hague. Meanwhile, President Outtara has begun his much-anticipated reign, calling it “the dawn of a new hope,” and has vowed to investigate last year’s election pandemic (though that’s not looking very promising).

Yet survivors of conflict-driven sexual violence are still struggling to move on. While local and international groups have continued providing medical and psychosocial care, few avenues to justice exist.

“In terms of legal services for survivors, there’s hardly anything,” said Monika Bakayoko-Topolska, Gender-Based Violence Coordinator for the IRC in Ivory Coast. “The legal system in Ivory Coast totally fell apart during the crisis. Women have no access to a tribunal, and not much access to the justice system. A woman may go to the police station to make a complaint, and if she isn’t turned away, she will be under a lot of pressure to withdraw her accusation.”

A limp legal system and the general aversion of women in Ivory Coast to even attempt to seek justice is a problem on which IRC is trying to zero in. Bakayoko-Topolska says that sexualized violence related to last year’s election continues to some extent, but IRC and others are now looking further up the causal chain – focusing on the acceptance of violence as a way of life. Sexualized violence tends to spike during moments of crisis, and the persistence and acceptance of domestic violence and violence more broadly creates an enabling environment for this.

“[These types of violence] are very much connected, related to the lack of balance of power between men and women,” said Bakayoko-Topolska. “Women have a lower status than men, even though the constitution recognizes women’s equal rights. Domestic violence is very accepted as a way of educating and controlling women. Sexual violence is then possible because we don’t see women as protected and supported by the general community.”

On Monday in Abidjan, IRC launched “Breaking the Silence,” a nationwide multi-media social marketing campaign to change norms around violence and encourage greater reporting of violence. In 2010, a community survey by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that 47 percent of women (and 16 percent of men) had experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives, yet fewer than two percent had ever attempted to officially report it. Shame, humiliation, and lack of knowledge of where to turn and to whom to speak about about the violence were reported as key reasons for non-disclosure.

The campaign is a direct volley back to these social factors, seeking to empower women to no longer accept violence as the status quo, while inspiring men to be leaders of change as well. Messages tailored to men include “protect women, it is your business” and “we are a team against violence,” while those for women are “brave woman, stand up against violence!” and “there is no place for violence in our home!” IRC hopes to see an immediate increase in the number of domestic violence cases reported.

“I don’t think we’ll have a huge impact on social norms after six months, but it’s a seed we are planting – not accepting violence as part of life.” said Bakayoko-Topolska.

The biggest challenge may not be changing social norms, however, but rather a weak legal framework for women’s rights. Good-intentioned laws to protect women do exist, but they’re shot through with loopholes, leaving ample room for interpretations that go against women’s interests, or are useless altogether.

For example, a law against rape doesn’t include any mention of marital rape, nor does it define what “rape” is. Physical violence is against the law, but intimate partner violence, so common in Ivory Coast, is not included. Bakayoko-Topolska can rattle off at least half a dozen other examples of “nice try, but no cigar” efforts to address issues like female genital cutting and remarriage after widowhood. “Women don’t seek justice because they know the law against it is so broad that people will turn them away from the police station,” she says.

It’s not a surprise, then, that for women in Ivory Coast, it remains to be seen whether a Outtara presidency will be any better than a Gbagbo one, or any other for that matter.

“In the first months after Outtara created a new government, there was a lot of excitement and there seemed to be a push for the improvement for women’s rights. The political speeches were very positive and encouraging, but we don’t know whether they’ll implement what they say,” said Bakayoko-Topolska.

This is the murky uphill that women’s rights groups in Ivory Coast are trying to climb. Given so many challenges, IRC’s new anti-violence campaign is perhaps a shot in the dark – but even a shot in the dark does break the silence.